Conventional meters which measure the consumption of a utility, such as water flow, contain apparatus responsive to the passage of that utility to operate a counter which provides a visual display. Such meters provide a problem in that the meter has to be accessed to read the visual display in order to bill the customer. It has therefore been suggested that the meter should provide a series of pulses in response to the passage of the utility and those pulses should be transmitted to a central location for counting and creating a bill for the customer. The pulse generation and transmission consumes power and it is an object of the present invention to reduce the amount of power consumed.